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YouTube has agreed to pay $24.5 million to settle a lawsuit brought by former President Donald Trump over the temporary suspension of his account following the January 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol insurrection, court filings show.
The settlement, filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for Northern California, resolves a four-year legal battle between Trump and the video-sharing platform, whose parent company is Alphabet. The bulk of the funds — $22 million — will be directed to the Trust for the National Mall, a nonprofit that supports the restoration of the National Mall and the construction of a planned White House ballroom backed by Trump. An additional $2.5 million will go to other plaintiffs, including the American Conservative Union, whose accounts were also removed.
Trump’s attorney, John Coale, told CBS News, “Glad it’s over,” noting that settlements with tech companies over account suspensions following the Capitol attack have totaled roughly $60 million.
Trump’s YouTube account was restored in 2023, following similar settlements with Meta and X. In January, Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, agreed to pay $25 million to Trump, and a month later, X agreed to pay $10 million.
The lawsuit against YouTube claimed that the suspension violated Trump’s First Amendment rights, alleging it was carried out “in response to coercion of the federal government.” YouTube and Alphabet had previously argued that the claim was “meritless” and that forcing the platform to host Trump without restrictions would conflict with its own First Amendment rights.
The settlement coincides with Trump’s plans to construct a 90,000-square-foot ballroom in the White House’s East Wing, which will seat 650 guests. Corporate and individual donors have pledged nearly $200 million for the project, with contributions from Google, R.J. Reynolds, Booz Allen Hamilton, Lockheed Martin, Palantir, NextEra Energy, and other firms across tech, banking, manufacturing, and health sectors. Fundraising is ongoing.
Since returning to office, Trump has cultivated closer ties with tech executives. Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos attended his inauguration, and Elon Musk led his administration’s Department of Government Efficiency for several months.
